{"id":115,"date":"2012-03-04T15:47:40","date_gmt":"2012-03-04T21:47:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blongerbros.com\/blog\/?p=115"},"modified":"2012-03-04T15:47:40","modified_gmt":"2012-03-04T21:47:40","slug":"joe-finally-shows-his-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blongerbros.com\/blog\/index.php\/2012\/03\/04\/joe-finally-shows-his-face\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Finally Shows His Face"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\tWell, new information has been scant in recent months, but yesterday Scott turned on the spigot. Several new items from genealogybank.com are now in the pipe, and one in particular that solves a longstanding mystery.<\/p>\n<p>But first, since we were just talking about him behind his back, let\u2019s briefly get back to Little Big Joe Blonger.<\/p>\n<p>For what it\u2019s worth, I feel a particular bond with Joe, the worn out old scout and prospector, and I\u2019ve always been disappointed I couldn\u2019t put a face to the character I\u2019ve spent so much with over the last few years.<\/p>\n<p>Frankly, Joe\u2019s position in this story particularly lends itself to the duties of the narrator, and I sorely wanted to be able to <em>see<\/em> the man telling his stories, hopefully with a visage worthy of Eastwood, or HBO, at least.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, I was fully prepared that we might never find a photograph. I was incorrect. The following is from the Denver Post, September 13, 1912. I give you Uncle Joe Blonger.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.blongerbros.com\/blog\/?attachment_id=116\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-116\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-116\" title=\"Joe Blonger\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blongerbros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Joe_Bullet.jpg\" alt=\"Joe Blonger\" width=\"400\" height=\"973\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blongerbros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Joe_Bullet.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.blongerbros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Joe_Bullet-123x300.jpg 123w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Isn\u2019t he cute? He\u2019s exactly what I would want from a genial old prospector.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, we knew about the bullet, from an AP wire service article just two sentences in length, from the <a href=\"\/accounts\/Armstrong.asp\">Armstrong account<\/a>, and Joe\u2019s pension records. But this article was long enough to answer another question, about Joe\u2019s service with the 25<sup>th<\/sup> Michigan Infantry. Had Joe returned to service after his wound, possibly accompanying Sherman on his march to the sea?<\/p>\n<p>Though he did muster out with his regiment, it sounds as though he did not return to action after his injury. It\u2019s also interesting to hear that, despite chronic discomfort, Joe feared the surgeons more, and opted to\u00a0stick with\u00a0his little lead companion.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well, new information has been scant in recent months, but yesterday Scott turned on the spigot. Several new items from genealogybank.com are now in the pipe, and one in particular that solves a longstanding mystery. But first, since we were just talking about him behind his back, let\u2019s briefly get back to Little Big Joe [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blongerbros.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blongerbros.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blongerbros.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blongerbros.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blongerbros.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.blongerbros.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blongerbros.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blongerbros.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blongerbros.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}